iPhone Growth Puts Dent in Android Shipments

By
Angela Moscaritolo3 Feb 2015, 2:20 a.m.

Demand for Apple's large-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus put a major dent on Android shipments last quarter.

While Android is still the king of the smartphone market — by far — shipments of phones running Google's mobile OS fell during the crucial holiday quarter for the first time ever, mainly due to phenomenal growth of Apple's iOS, according to new data from market tracker ABI Research.

In what is usually a "shipment spike quarter," Android shipments actually fell 5 percent, dropping to 205.56 million units in Q4 from 217 million during the previous three months. Shipments of so-called "forked" or modified Android phones also dropped, falling 1 percent to 85 million units.

"Google's Android is being attacked by Apple's iOS at the high end," Nick Spencer, senior practice director of mobile devices for ABI Research, said in a statement. On the low end, Android shipments took a hit thanks to cheaper "forked" devices from companies like Xioami, especially in "high-growth markets" like China.

"4Q 2014 has been a seismic quarter in the smartphone industry and many premium tier Android vendors may once again review their operating system and therefore content and service strategies in light of Apple and forked Android vendor Xiaomi's success," Spencer predicted. "Worrying times for Google's mobile services and Android, but it presents opportunity for other service providers and even operating systems."

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About the Author

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security. Angela has also written for The Northern Valley Suburbanite in New Jersey, The Dominion Post in West Virginia, and the Uniontown-Herald Standard in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of West Virginia University's Perely Isaac Reed School of Journalism. See Full Bio